Netanyahu-Mitchell Meeting Postponed Again

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's scheduled meeting with US Mideast envoy George Mitchell has been postponed at least until the end of the month in the allies' latest dispute over settlements!

Another meeting between the two, which was set to take place in Paris last month, was also cancelled.

Mitchell was originally scheduled to arrive in the Zionist entity on Sunday and later hold meetings with senior Palestinian officials in Ramallah. Tel Aviv did not state the official reason for the delay, but some officials suspect it relates to the fact that the Netanyahu and Obama administrations have yet to resolve their differences on the issue of settlement expansion in the occupied West Bank, among other things.

Israel cancelled a previously scheduled meeting between Netanyahu and Mitchell for fear of another confrontation with its strongest ally. The two were set to meet in Paris to discuss Washington's demand that Israel freeze all settlement construction and dismantle the illegal outposts in the West Bank. Instead, Netanyahu sent Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak to New York and later to London in early July to meet with Mitchell for a second time.

A senior Israeli cabinet member said at the time that "Barak returned with nothing from his talks with Mitchell; it appears that he offered the dismantling of illegal West Bank outposts in exchange for nothing."

The Israeli minister, who asked to remain was also quoted by his associates as saying, "The inclusion of Syria and Lebanon in the statement on a comprehensive peace agreement that followed the (Barak-Mitchell) meeting is a huge flop."

During their meeting in London, Barak told the US envoy that "Israel is committed to evacuating the 23 illegal outposts within weeks or months, not years."

Members of the Opposition mentioned the lack of a clear Israeli plan for the removal of the illegal outposts and a halt to all settlement construction as a possible reason for the cancellation of Netanyahu's meeting with Mitchell, but Israeli government officials familiar with the talks said the delay was not related to the dispute.

US TO ISRAEL: HALT EAST J’LEM PROJECT

Meanwhile, Israeli radio stations reported Sunday that the US has told Israel to halt construction project in occupied east Jerusalem.

Israel Radio and Army Radio reported Sunday that Israel's ambassador to the US was summoned to the State Department over the weekend. The stations said Michael Oren was told the project should not go ahead.

In response to the US demand, Netanyahu said the Israeli government was not going to place restrictions on Israeli settlers in a city that the state considers its capital. "We cannot accept the idea that Jews will not have the right to live or to build anywhere in east Jerusalem. We cannot accept such restrictions," Netanyahu said at the start of the weekly cabinet meeting.

"Unified Jerusalem is the capital of the Jewish people and the state of Israel. Our sovereignty over it is unquestionable," he said, adding that the city's Palestinian residents could buy houses throughout the city.

The international community considers Jewish neighborhoods in occupied east Jerusalem to be settlements and an obstacle to Israeli-Palestinian peacemaking.

The project is being developed by American millionaire Irving Moskowitz and is near Israel's national police headquarters. The radio reports said Israeli planning authorities have approved the project.

In response to reports, a senior Israeli official in Tel Aviv said, "Israel has built in Jerusalem and will continue to build in Jerusalem."

The project in question is the construction of the Shepherd Hotel in the east Jerusalem neighborhood of Sheikh Jarrah. "Israel is building in Jerusalem and will build in the future. The Israeli enforcement and planning bodies are in charge of this. This is private land," the source said.